Big Finish Podcast Notes and Misc News Roundup Thread

Probably a BBC mandate to say that, because the Beeb themselves want to erase that theory with The War Games in Colour.

Ahh, such a tragicomic story. But it’s good to hear that we could get more Rani! (I was going to page @sircarolyn, but she made it here just before I was done writing this post) and hoping BF gets the green light to use the Archite Panjabi version soon!

They laugh because they know it’s true… :smiley:

How many peoppe can say that they released a new website in their 90s? That’s wild! Respect to the GOAT!

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It’s not actually @ItsR0b0tNinja doing these. They are compiled by a user over on Reddit, and she has the permission to bring them over here, so she just copy-pastes them as is :slight_smile:

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Archite sounds like some sort of cool rock

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but yeah if the Panjabi Rani gets eu content i will become insufferable

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Yes, that’s what I will name the new space rock I’m bound to discover one day!

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Rani!!! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts::smiling_face_with_three_hearts::heart_eyes::heart_eyes::star_struck::star_struck::star_struck:

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The podcast is now out on Friday’s going forward starting from today!

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PODCAST NOTES:

  • Not really anything Doctor Who related this week, though one listener asked why the Star Cops range is moving to download only when the range has previously had CDs available. Nick understands the issue and apologizes, but forgoing the physical release lets them actually fund the project. So something like this could eventually happen to some Doctor Who ranges, and in fact already has with UNIT: Brave New World.

BIG FINISH NEWS:

DOCTOR WHO NEWS:

MERCHANDISE NEWS:

  • Nothing to report

BBC AUDIO/BOOKS/MEDIA NEWS:

BIG FINISH SALES AND RECOMMENDATIONS:

Fifteen Minute Drama Tease and Production Interviews: The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Time War Uncharted 2: Pursuit - Spoil of War

Randomoid Selectotron: 25% off a random Big Finish release every week! Just click on this link and enter the code BUCKUP. This week’s selection: Gallifrey Series 04

Big Finish Book Club: Discounts on a specially selected Big Finish audio drama every month. June’s selection: Dalek Universe - The Dalek Protocol (Fourth Doctor) for just £4.99 on download.

Free Excerpt: Every month a 15 minute excerpt is chosen from an upcoming release to download for free. June’s selection: Space Security Service: The Voord in London. Just click the link and use this month’s discount code ANYA.

Out of Print This Week:

  • N/A

Big Finish Release Date Schedule:

Community Reviews
Release No. Title Review Members
S02E01 The Robot Revolution 3.27/5 837 members
S02E02 Lux 3.96/5 830 members
S02E03 The Well 4.06/5 790 members
S02E04 Lucky Day 3.44/5 755 members
S02E05 The Story and the Engine 3.92/5 738 members
S02E06 The Interstellar Song Contest 3.09/5 713 members
S02E07 Wish World 3.10/5 679 members
S02E08 The Reality War 2.10/5 653 members
Novel Fear Death By Water 4.42/5 18 members
Novel Spectral Scream 3.62/5 13 members
3.1 Dark Gallifrey: Missy Part 1 3.36/5 50 members
3.2 Dark Gallifrey: Missy Part 2 4.18/5 44 members
7 The Fifth Doctor Adventures: Hooklight 1 4.46/5 102 members
8 The Fifth Doctor Adventures: Hooklight 2 4.46/5 70 members
94 The Boy Who Never Laughed 4.69/5 29 members
14B The Fourth Doctor Adventures: The Ruins of Kaerula
The Remains of Kaerula 2.79/5 17 members
The Ruins of Kaerula 2.53/5 17 members
Cry of the Banshee 3.30/5 15 members
7 The Seventh Doctor Adventures: Past Forward
With the Angels Part 1 4.50/5 22 members
Catastrophix 3.37/5 19 members
With the Angels Part 2 4.29/5 17 members
1 Space Security Service: The Voord in London
The Voord in London ???/5 3 ratings
The Thal from G.R.A.C.E. ???/5 2 ratings
Allegiance ???/5 2 ratings

What Big Finish I Was Listening to This Week: Finished the new Fourth Doctor Adventures, and as has been typical for the range recently I wasn’t very impressed. The Seventh Doctor Adventures: Past Forward, on the other hand…just wow. A definite contender for best Weeping Angel story I’ve ever heard. And after a tease in Classic Doctors, New Monsters, we finally get Ray back!

Random Tangents: Nick and Benji come up with the name for a pub, The Crooked Putter, only to discover one already exists in Arizona. Benji becomes a bit obsessed with the menu, and Nick discovers sausage gravy.

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PODCAST NOTES:

  • Two new free Short Trips will be previewed and released live on Big Finish Day this Saturday, 21 June. These Short Trips are written by Jacqueline Rayner star Peter Purves to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Steven boarding the TARDIS.
  • Nick says that there is “some hope” of seeing the Rani return in Big Finish (those of you who read this weekly may remember that the holdup on new Rani stories at Big Finish for the last ten years was ultimately a simple clerical error on having the wrong street number when contacting the Baker estate).
    • Nick doesn’t quite understand why people get so excited about the Rani.
  • The Into the TARDIS podcast is brought up once again. Nick explains that it does take some amount of money to make that podcast, but they presumably did not have any noticeable success in boosting sales to justify paying that money for something that brought no revenue. But he’s glad it’s out there and that there is a way for people to get into ranges not available anywhere else for free.
  • A Sherlock Holmes enjoyer emails in to note they like the idea of the serialized weekly release schedule that Untold will adopt, and wonders if other ranges will possibly follow suit. Nick explains that this is a sort of test to see if people like that format, and if they do maybe it could be implemented for other Big Finish releases.

BIG FINISH NEWS:

DOCTOR WHO NEWS:

  • Nothing in the way of official news, but per Doctor Who Magazine it sounds like, as expected, RTD has no idea who Billie Piper is actually playing. Could be the Doctor, could be Rose, could be Bad Wolf, who knows.

MERCHANDISE NEWS:

  • The Fourteenth Doctor and the Meep Vortex Edition Figure Set is announced and released by Character Options on 16 June. This marks the second of five exclusive Vortex releases in 2025, following the Spring release of the Third Doctor and Sonic Screwdriver set. I’ve seen it reported that 80% of inventory has already sold, so act quick!
  • Doctor Who Magazine #618 is released on 19 June, featuring Billie Piper on the cover as…the Doctor?
  • Doctor Who: Puffin Classics Digital Audiobook Collection is revealed, and due for release on 28 August. Featuring four adventures previously available on paperback:
    • Rebellion on Treasure Island (Eleventh Doctor)
    • In Wonderland (Fifth Doctor)
    • Frankenstein and the Patchwork Man (Ninth Doctor)
    • Dracula! (First Doctor)
  • Doctor Who: Puffin Classics - Myths and Legends Digital Audiobook Collection is revealed, and due for release on 28 August. Featuring four adventures previously available on paperback:
    • Legends of Camelot (Tenth Doctor)
    • The Wonderful Doctor of Oz (Thirteenth Doctor and Missy)
    • The Return of Robin Hood (Fourth Doctor)
    • Josephine and the Argonauts (Third Doctor)

BBC AUDIO/BOOKS/MEDIA NEWS:

BIG FINISH SALES AND RECOMMENDATIONS:

Fifteen Minute Drama Tease and Production Interviews: UNIT: Brave New World: Fractures - Kaiju, Dark Gallifrey: Missy Part 3, and Short Trips: The Doctor’s Gambit

Randomoid Selectotron: 25% off a random Big Finish release every week! Just click on this link and enter the code BUCKUP. This week’s selection: The Monthly Adventures: 255. Harry Houdini’s War

Big Finish Book Club: Discounts on a specially selected Big Finish audio drama every month. June’s selection: Dalek Universe - The Dalek Protocol (Fourth Doctor) for just £4.99 on download.

Free Excerpt: Every month a 15 minute excerpt is chosen from an upcoming release to download for free. June’s selection: Space Security Service: The Voord in London. Just click the link and use this month’s discount code ANYA.

Out of Print This Week:

  • None!

Big Finish Release Date Schedule:

Community Reviews
Release No. Title Review Members
Novel Fear Death By Water 4.43/5 23 members
Novel Spectral Scream 3.64/5 14 members
3.1 Dark Gallifrey: Missy Part 1 3.35/5 54 members
3.2 Dark Gallifrey: Missy Part 2 4.24/5 48 members
94 The Boy Who Never Laughed 4.68/5 31 members
14B The Fourth Doctor Adventures: The Ruins of Kaerula
The Remains of Kaerula 2.80/5 20 members
The Ruins of Kaerula 2.53/5 20 members
Cry of the Banshee 3.36/5 21 members
7 The Seventh Doctor Adventures: Past Forward
With the Angels Part 1 4.39/5 38 members
Catastrophix 3.33/5 35 members
With the Angels Part 2 4.22/5 34 members
1 Space Security Service: The Voord in London
The Voord in London 3.39/5 9 ratings
The Thal from G.R.A.C.E. 2.71/5 7 ratings
Allegiance 3.13/5 8 ratings
2 Time War Uncharted 2: Pursuit
Spoil of War 3.52/5 22 members
The Tale of Alex 3.69/5 18 members
See-Saw 4.21/5 17 members
The First Forest 3.88/5 16 members

What Big Finish I Was Listening to This Week: Listened to Space Security Service: The Voord in London. I thought the opening story was quite good, but the second was hard to follow and the third just wasn’t very engaging. Every story on the set is also at least an hour long, which I really think puts some people off a new release like this, myself included. I wish more Big Finish releases targeted 45-50 minutes stories if only to have better pace. Especially on the digital only releases, you could add a fourth story if you just cut 15 minutes out of three hour-long stories. I know it’s probably not that simple, but just a thought. I’ve also only been able to listen to the opening story of Time War Uncharted 2: Pursuit, but I thought it was quite good and a strong start to the set.

Random Tangents: The Crooked Putter returns! Nick and Benji are a bit perplexed by a note on the menu that you get “your choice of toast” (if that’s not a thing in the UK, then I guess I’ll be the first to explain you usually get offered white, wheat, sourdough, and possibly one other type like multigrain). Nick notes that in the UK the only choice you get is white or brown, to which he always replies “it all ends up brown in the end.”

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because I’ve got eyes???

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I actually agree with Sir Nick of Briggs.

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Because me like not moral Scientist doing devious Experiments!!! Also great Casting, sorry Nick, you are wrong!!!

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I think the problem with The Rani is that they can easily turn into !femMaster, rather than being their own, interesting, character.

The Monk/The Nun is interesting because they are in it for themselves, and they fail spectacularly at it most of the time.

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Justice for Anita and Archie!

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True but that’s also a writer skill issue. The Rani could easily be her own character, and indeed is, people are just obsessed with the Master[1] and can’t write women :person_shrugging:


  1. possibly controversially i don’t get the Master love tbh ↩︎

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To which I’d say the solution is to not do that.

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Because she’s amazing? Because she’s a really fun character? Because the actors are great? Because it’s really hot when women are evil and want to do experiments on you?

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Oh, I absolutely agree that it’s a skill issue, but DW isn’t known for their Quality Control when it comes to characterisation.

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Tell that to RTD. But even in the O’Mara version she wasn’t that interesting. It didn’t help that she only appeared twice, during the death rattle era of the show & one of those times she had to share screen time with the Master.

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